The Polyakh Case: Implications for Lustration in Ukraine and Abroad

In October of 2019, the ECtHR found violations of the Convention in the case of Polyakh and Others v. Ukraine, thereby questioning the legitimacy of Ukrainian lustration and declaring that such interference had no signs of being necessary in a democratic society. The Strasbourg decision, even so, implied a new and permissible scope in subject and time for lustration. This paper analyses the implications of the ECtHR decision in the Polyakh and Others v. Ukraine case regarding the constitutionality of lustration in Ukraine and it assesses the Government Cleansing Act’s international implications.